Japanese business leaders will visit China in January, the chairman of Japan's biggest business lobby said Monday, amid heightened tensions between the two nations over the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea.
"We are faced with the issue of the treated water, but we must make efforts to have a dialogue, especially at times like this," Masakazu Tokura, head of the Japan Business Federation, also known as Keidanren, said at a press conference.
The visit will mark the first such trip since September 2019. A business mission organized by Keidanren and some other groups had been visiting China almost every year since 1975, but the coronavirus pandemic disrupted these interactions.
The water release prompted China to impose a ban on all seafood imports from Japan. Tokura called China's response "extremely regrettable."
"We hope to create a free and open economy together with China," he said.
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